Allerton Gardens

Kauai is not that large so we find ourselves visiting some of the same attractions we visited during a previous visit again. This is the case with Allerton Gardens. What struck me about our visit this year was the very different impression I got from previous visits. I decided the different perspectives resulted from the interest and focus of our tour guides. I remember a previous visit having a more botanical focus even to the point of walking through a greenhouse focused on the newest mission of the gardens as preserving tropical plants. This year was more focused on the story of the Allertons.

The Allertons had immense wealth with one being the son of a Chicago stockyards baron. The son never worked and spent a great deal of time traveling and in Hawaii. The son was gay and had as his partner a younger man that he adopted to allow for the passing on of his estate. The garden was created as an outdoor living space (their traditional home was far more modest) consisting of "rooms" the couple would use for entertaining and living their lives. Meals were enjoyed outdoors. You have to imagine the rooms shown in the following photos containing furniture and used for banquets, dancing, etc.

The rooms were planned very carefully and the trust that sustains the gardens is based on precise instructions for what is to be grown where. Hurricanes have done severe damage to the rooms and these instructions were followed carefully in the regeneration of the desired plantings.

Cone guys

Kauai is pretty much round. A road runs around much of the island except one stretch where the terrain does not allow. Side roads branch off from this ring road, but again cannot link across the island because of the mountainous terrain in the middle.

I think I mentioned in a previous post that they use an unusual approach to adjust what can be a heavy flow of traffic to and from Lihue (home of Costco). I finally was in the right place at the right time yesterday to get a photo. The road is three lanes moving towards Lihue. I mean a total of three lanes and not three lanes in one direction. After the morning rush and by rush I mean the number of vehicles and not the speed at which this traffic flows (max 40 for much of the trip), these cone guys go out an pick up these cones that signal they side of the road marked for two-lane traffic is now one lane and the second lane has been assigned to the other direction. There are multiple trucks in this convoy. The trucks in the back signal to traffic to be cautious and then move up when the truck in the front is loaded. Evidently some time in the early morning, this cones must be put down again. Five days a week. Steady work and I guess a cost effective solution.

Hibiscus

We have spent little time visiting tropical locations so I can't compare Kauai to other locations that are warm, fertile, and wet. The thing I find so impressive about this place is the weight and diversity of the biomass. Green vegetations everywhere. This is not the monoculture fields of agricultural areas and not the heavy timber growth of the area we spend so much time at in Northern Wisconsin. This is green growing on green with so much natural vegetation, variety and flowering species.

I frequently walk to or from a coffee shop I like to inhabit to read and write. It is a little over two miles away from the condo we stay in. With the exception of the golf courses that line part of this road, much of the rest of the hike is through areas lined with hedges of hibiscus. I don't know where the hibiscus can be grown and I understand these lengths of hibiscus plants were planted and are carefully maintained. The percentage of plant covered with flowers has been increasing in the last couple of weeks and the variety of the huge blooms has to attract your attention.

Cindy warned me.

This is not the type of thing you want to experience on a trip to the garden island. I have worn glasses since my teens and need them to function. 

For some reason Cindy suggested I bring a spare pair of glasses for this trip. Of all the trips we have taken, this is the first time we have done this. 

This is the pair I found in a desk drawer. I have no idea how long ago these were my daily pair. I think this was the same era in which I also wore a necklace of wooden beads. 

Oh, this photo also shows me sporting my new hair cut. 

Not all palms bear coconuts

How folks, including me, get strange ideas in their heads is interesting. I fancy myself having a fairly decent understanding of most things biological, but for some reasons I had assumed the palm trees bear coconuts and that was that. Somehow in this misunderstanding there must be some nugget of insight. All of us have limited life experiences whether we know it or not and those experiences we have not had offer the possibility of learning things we presently do not assume we do not know. I apologize for the last sentence, but I am not going to try it again.

So, we like acai bowls and know that the redish/purpleish slush that is the base of the acai bowl comes from a berry of some sort. The images that follow are acai bowls. You can't see the acai because it is located at the bottom of the bowl. I think you can get an acai bowl at the COSTCO food stand and this would be a way to taste what I describe. You can also purchase the frozen berries there to make your own (acai, granola, bananas, and peanut butter is a great combination).

Convinced these berries must be grown on the island somewhere I did a little online research. This is where I learned that the berry grows on palm tree and palm trees produce something other than coconuts. 

From my research I learned that the berry grows in this fringy type stuff I realized I had observed  below the fronds on palm trees. No berries, but the location seemed to match where the berries would appear.

We then spotted these berries. There were located in the right place on the tree. Natasha found one on the ground. It was obviously red and not purple, but also larger and more oblong than the berry we were looking for. However, again, we had not seen any alternatives to this palm so perhaps the berry had yet to ripen.

I use an app on my phone that allows the identification of unfamiliar plants. It is called Plant Snap. if you are an iPhone user and think plant identification is interesting the app might be useful. I loaded the image you see above into PlantSnap and the match came back as Manila or Christmas Palm. The color, size, and time of year for the berries and the information that this is an ornamental palm common in Hawaii convinced me that we have yet to discover an example of the source of the elusive acai berry. This is not the palm you seek.

P.S. - the acai bowl from Costco.